The NHS has been told to stop dismissing and stigmatising patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) under a government plan to overhaul care for the debilitating illness.
Doctors and medical students will be offered greater training as part of a national strategy vowing to “improve attitudes” to ME and “trust and listen to those with personal experience”.
The government will also promote medical research to find treatments for ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which affects an estimated 241,000 people in England. Symptoms include prolonged fatigue, dizziness, pain, sleep disorders and gastrointestinal problems. It leaves one in four sufferers unable to leave home, with some needing to be tube-fed.
The interim plan, led by the Department of Health, is the first government strategy aimed
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